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Common CIM-SMGS consignment note for international rail transport

Dr. Th. Leimgruber, Secretary General of the CIT

UNECE / ECO

Regional Workshop of Euro-Asian Transport linksTeheran, 27-29 April 2009

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The CIT

200 Railway Undertakings

Association under Swiss law located in Bern

Tasks:1. Implementation of COTIF for

practical use2. Standardisation of contractual

relationships

3. Representation of the interests of members to authorities and other associations

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Railway organizations

Standards

Transport Law

Politics

Infrastructure

OSJD

SMGS

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Corridors Europe - Asia

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Scope of CIM und SMGS

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Differences in lawCIM(Uniform Rules concerning the Contract of International Carriage of Goods by Rail - Appendix B to COTIF)

Consensual contract

Contractual freedom

Consignment note design within the competence of RUs

Joint and several liability

SMGS

(Agreement on International Goods Transport by Rail)

Formal contract

Obligation to set and publish tariffs and to carry

Consignment note defined in SMGS itself

Individual liability

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Project: Legal interoperability CIM/SMGS

Phase 1:A common CIM/SMGS consignment note

Phase 2:A unique claim handling mechanism

Phase 3:Law harmonisation

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Mostiska II

25 July 2006

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CIM/SMGS consignment note

• “Sum” of the CIM- and SMGS-consignment notes

• Based on the United Nations Layout Key for Trade Documents

• Recognition as 1. customs document2. letter of credit

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Kaliningrad

Budapest

Ljubljana

Kyjiv

Berlin

Mainz

Bucuresti

Duisburg

Ilsenburg

St Ingbert

Donec’kZaporizzja

L’viv

Zliv

Kaluga

TřinecJihlava

Kotel

Moskva

ŽŽŽŽilina

Mladá-Boleslav

Praha

Bratislava

Warszawa

Minsk

CIM/SMG consignment note: Scope of use

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Electronic common CIM/SMGS consignment note

•Data flow

•Content of messages

•Legal specifications

•Functional specifications

•Technical implementation

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2nd stage of the project: A unique claim handling mechanism

• Guidelines for the CIM and SMGGS liability regimes

• Legal presumption following reconsignment

• Common CIM/SMGS formal report

• Mutual recognition of the formal report

• Unified CIM/SMGS claims handling rules

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Kaliningrad Declaration

1. Extension of the CIM/SMGS Consignment note to

• Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China

• International ferry links

2. Completion of the work on the electronic CIM/SMGS Consignment note

3. Training and spread of information

4. Further Improvements of the legal framework

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Extending the scope of the CIM/SMGS consignment not e

Land bridge between Europe and Asia

• in transit through Mongolia

• in Central Asia and Kazakhstan

• on TransSib

• on further traffic axes in the Russian Federation

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Next steps

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Demands for customs facilitations

• Common customs procedure for transcontinental transportation

• Single customs declaration based on single transport documentation

• Interconnection with the up-coming customs security obligation of the European Union

Possible solutions:

– Implementation of the existing UN Conventions

– Up-grading the existing UN Conventions

– Put in place a new UN Convention on simplified rail custom transit procedure for Eurasian rail corridors

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Contractual harmonisation

SMPS/SMGSSMPS/SMGS

COTIFCOTIF

„„ GTC GTC EurasiaEurasia ““